36 JANUARY 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® www.starironworks.com 257 Caroline Street Punxsutawney, PA 15767 800-927-0560 • 814-427-2555 Fax: 814-427-5164 SERVING THE WATER WELL INDUSTRY Serving the Drilling Industry Sustainable Technologies Lead to Soil Cleanup Adapted from Information by the Office of Environmental Management During the Cold War era, a manufacturer of nuclear weapons in South Carolina, used trenches to burn and bury waste which contaminated the surrounding soil and groundwater. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) crews successfully completed cleanup of the site. Crews with EM contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions completed remedial actions identified by members from DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, to clean it up. Workers placed a vegetative soil cover over the areas to reduce precipitation from moving contamination deeper into the subsurface. Crews then used a process known as soil vapor extraction (SVE) to remove the contaminant mass from the soil and prevent further impacts to groundwater. Sustainable green technologies, including solar-powered SVE units such as MicroBlowers are designed to generate a vacuum which exhausts contaminants from designated wells. Each unit requires only 20 to 40 watts of power, easily produced by a small solar panel. Another passive SVE technology, called BaroBalls, made it possible to pump contaminants from the subsurface by harnessing natural changes in barometric pressure. The MicroBlowers and BaroBalls removed approximately 150 pounds of chlorinated solvents. The vapors were treated and released into the atmosphere, where they typically vaporize into the air, which allowed passive SVE to draw from natural resources, such as pumps powered by solar panels, to continue removing contamination. “During active SVE operation, the direct cost of operations and maintenance averaged approximately $150,000 per year, which was reduced to approximately $60,000 per year during low-energy and passive SVE operation,” said Joao Cardoso-Neto, project task team lead. Sampling was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the low-energy, passive SVE units and to determine if cleanup goals had been achieved. Results from the soil sampling provide evidence the efforts have achieved all cleanup goals and can be permanently shut down. Cumulatively, these technologies are proving to be a cost-efficient means of reducing risk to human health and the environment, while shortening the time needed for site cleanup. An SVE unit MicroBlowers and BaroBalls WTR
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